Movie Reviews

Pretty good....if you like Rancid....a lot

Leetsauce | San Jose, California | 08/03/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Not sure if you want to buy this? Well, let me break it down for you.

The bad: There is a lack of focus on this DVD, because it's called Give Em The Boot, but it watches more like a Rancid history book. I say this because 80 percent of the videos and footage include Rancid, and it resembles nothing that the Give Em The Boot Audio CD series has shown us (as far as diversity). In addition to this, a bunch of the performances have been converted from color video to black and white, which makes looking at them more "punk," apparently, but after a while it strains the eyes, and is annoying. Tim Armstrong and Davey Havok are advertised as doing "Knowledge" together, but it turns out to only be a 45 second acoustic version wherein they are being silly back stage.

The good: There are several very hard to find performances which include: Tim Armstrong playing Rats in the Hallway and Roots Radicals acoustic, Joe Strummer playing Rudie Can't Fail (a clash song), and my favorite, Davey Havok of AFI singing "Radio" with Rancid on stage during their 2000 tour together. Other highlights include a bunch of live Rancid performances, as well as a general live "best of" of the Hellcat bands.

Only buy this is if you are obsessed with Rancid, casual will be dissapointed."

Some so-so bands, lots for Rancid fans.

Triniman | Winnipeg, MB | 08/20/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"You have to wonder if Joe Strummer knew that he would be used to help sell a DVD og punk artists when he appeared with Rancid's Tim Armstrong in the opening scene. The footage is very grainy and the audio is assisted with subtitles. You can't actually hear Strummer's final words, but a clean take would have been so cynically corporate, right?

Rancid are the main feature here, but there's oodles of concert footage and rare performances of several Hellcat Records artists. Rancid is up first with their insanely catchy "Ruby Soho" track from 1995's ...And Out Come The Wolves. It consists of live footage from several shows around the world and also introduces all the groups who appear on the DVD. Some of the bands just don't do anything for me. Tiger Army's "Never Die" (from 1999's Tiger Army)was an exercise in power and speed, but the song didn't grab me at all. Still, the live scenes show pools of kids bopping along and having a ball. The same can be said of the female-fronted F-Minus.

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros offer up The Clash's "Rudie Can't Fail" (1980's London Calling) which only makes me wish I had actually seen The Clash, or Strummer.

One of the treats is an acoustic rendering of Rancid's "Roots Radicals", complete with an explanation about how it's a song about taking the bus.

Nekromantix have some of the coolest haircuts you can imagine, and are an eye-catching band live. On "Gargoyles Over Copenhagen", the bass player sports a coffin-shaped upright bass. The song itself doesn't quite do the band justice, however. Iggy Pop and Davey Havok (from AFI)show up, as well.

What's the purpose behind this DVD? Was it a tribute to Joe Strummer? No, although they do have one for him towards the end. It just seems like "Give 'Em The Boot" is meant to market Hellcat Records' artists on the shoulders of the popular Rancid. There's not enough discussion with the bands about their songs or the inspriation behind their music. And, unless you are a serious Rancid fan, you might the footage of them overwhelmed the other groups. There are ten Rancid performances out of 25 songs. Among my favorite performers were The Slackers, and The Dropkick Murphy.

"i've been a rancid fan for years now, and they are by far my favorite band. i wanted this mainly for the rancid, although the dropkicks, lars and the bastards, the disasters, joe strummer (doing a clash song, which is a plus) are all great. the problem is the rancid videos are all from the same tour (the indestructible tour) and for some reason tim thought filming them in a grainy black and white would be good. not really. its harder to see and after the 12 rancid song or so it just gets old. the other bands arent all b&w, in fact the transplants, murphys, are in full color and look really good. but there isnt enough of that. too much crappy black and white. i wish that other bands were better represented on here. and the tribute to joe strummer is weak, considering there is a full video out for redemption song with all of the scenes with joe from the clash days and stuff, and on the dvd its cut down to about a minute. overall, i would only recommend it to the diehard rancid fan, seeing as how its pretty much a rancid dvd with guest appearances anyways."